Featuring ardent comic fan, Saud Al Hazzani who hails from Saudi Arabia and snatched the first place at the cosplaying event at Middle East Film and Comic Con (MEFFC).

Last week, United Arab Emirates was host
to one of the first and largest comic cons in the region, The Middle East Filmand Comic Con (MEFCC) held on 20th-21st April was a haven
for comic, sci-fi horror and fantasy fans.

A
unique platform gathered people of similar interests, allowing them to boldly
come out with their fantasies and dress up as their favourite fictional
characters or their own alter-egos a phenomenon known as cosplaying.

But for one person it was a real experience
and his name is Saud Al Hazzani a cosplayer from Saudi Arabia who took part in
the Middle-East first comic-con cosplay competition and won it on 21st
April 2012.

Saud is a 28-year-old who works at Microsoft Arabia as a retail partner account manager, is
someone who is best described as a fun person who loves what he does and by that he
means the other side of him who is a cosplayer.

Member of Dubai Anime Club and cosplaying
for almost five years now, Saud said he first got inspired by all the Anime Con
events he heard about, of course he never thought that one day he would be
living the dream and taking part in the a cosplaying event at region’s largest
comic con, MEFCC.

The first cosplaying event he attended was
at a convention in Bahrain known as Banicon.

"I decided to give it a try for fun
and the overwhelming fun I had there just got me addicted to cosplay."
said Saud.

Saud's proud moment as he cosplayed a popular character from Tekken and

He has also stated how cosplaying brings
out the creative side of him which and also gives him the opportunity to make
new friends with people who share the same interest as him.

Many people look at cosplayers, think they
are just plain crazy but they don’t know exactly how difficult it is,
especially when it comes to finding the right materials for creating your own
costumes.

For Saud the biggest obstacle is finding
the time to work on costumes as he is a full time employee and most of the
materials are hard to obtain as the cosplaying scene isn’t that popular here in
this part of the world.

"You can imagine how I will be
explaining my cosplay items to other country customs,” said Saud who finds that
the main problem about comic cons is that they take place in other countries
and not here.

He hopes that will change now for he
believes that cosplay is a concept of fun and that no one can be the best at
it, as it’s all about making what you like and enjoying.

Saud won the Middle East Film and Comic Con
cosplay competition cosplaying as a character from a popular fighting game,
Tekken. His winning costume will be one of his most memorable moments as he
heard a crowd at comic con screaming his name when he literally spread his
wings to showcase his costumes features.

"It was one hell of a moment," Saud
said. “Out of all the events I’ve been to, this was the best.”

Comic con such as these allows people to express themselves and to experiment
with their creativity, it is an event that brings out the best in people and in
the long run inspires the most of us to just have fun and be who we want to be.

By Brendon .A. Rodrigues

The writer is a first year media and communications student from Manipal University, Dubai.